Squat To Gain Weight: The Complete Guide

Do you need to squat to gain weight? Should you squat to gain weight?

How do you squat? How often?

The squat can be a daunting and confusing exercise, especially to skinny people trying to gain mass. Even experienced lifters often admit they have never truly included squats in their routine.

Why?

The squat is a very compromising exercise. You literally carry a heavy weight on your shoulders. Failing a squat can be dangerous and being stuck at the bottom of the squat can feel very scary. If your legs are undeveloped, you may feel insecure about how little you can squat. Building legs is rarely the first thing people think of when they decide to build a more massive body.

Let’s demystify the squat and learn how you can incorporate them safely into your training to gain weight!

Why should YOU squat to gain weight?

The squat is the king of all exercises. It is a great compound movement that recruits a lot of big muscle groups in your body and triggers your body to get into growth mode. It is a very demanding exercise, but that’s exactly what gets your brain to start working on building a bigger and stronger body.

The primary muscles targeted by the squat include the quads and glutes, which are some of the biggest muscles in your body. Throw in the work done by adductors, spinal erectors, hamstrings and stabilizers, and you have half of your body working during the squat.

By recruiting all of these muscles, you are encouraging overall and proportionate growth of your body.

Do you have to squat to gain weight?

There are ways around it. However, those methods will probably take longer and be less effective.

Should you squat to gain weight?

YES! If you are serious about packing on muscle and gaining mass quickly, you should absolutely add squatting to your training. Let’s talk about how.

How to squat

Setting up to squat

Getting the form right is very important to ensure you squat safely and also maximize gaining weight and size in the process. This is all written assuming you want to perform a standard barbell squat, with the bar on your back in the high bar position.

Squats done with great form can look different from each other. Your body, including length of your limbs and flexibility, influence how a proper squat will look for you.

Here are some form tips for setting up to squat properly.

• Bar Height: Ensure the bar is a comfortable height for you to both take the bar off of the rack and rerack it at the end of a set. This means the bar height should be as close as possible to allow you to walk the bar straight out of and into the rack. I find that it is helpful to have the bar rest about 2 inches lower than it would sit on your back at a full standing height. This means I lift slightly to get it out of the rack and when I rerack it, I walk the bar into the vertical supports and slowly drop the bar about the remaining 1-2 inches to get it into the supports.
• Foot Position: There is actually a lot to discuss with how to properly set your feet to start a squat.
  • I prefer to have my feet shoulder width apart. This means I draw an imaginary line from where my shoulder connects to my torso (top of armpit) to the floor. I want to space between my big toe and other toes to be on that line. A great cue to figure out your natural spacing is to set your feet where you would if you were going to jump from a standing position.
  • A lot of squat guides will tell you to point your toes straight forward. I think a slight outward point feels more natural and is often required. It shouldn’t be exaggerated, but just a slight outward point is normal. To figure out where my natural point should be, I start with my feet shoulder width apart, pointing straight ahead, and then squeeze my glutes. This squeeze will make you point your toes outward slightly. The more your toes point straight ahead, the more you’ll include your inner thigh. The more you point your toes out, the more you will recruit the outer thigh.
  • Your footwear is also important to consider. Squats require you to drive with a lot of power through the floor. You need to be stable and in control the whole time. I prefer to squat barefoot or with shoes that have a strong and stable sole. You’ll see a lot of people prefer Chuck Taylors in the gym because they are light weight and very flat sole without frills. Soft running shoes are not a great choice for the squat.
• Back Details: Your back is very important to proper form with the squat.
  • Your back should be straight. Do not exaggerate sticking your glutes out, even though you’ll see some fitness influencers do that. That curve in your lower spine is not good. Also, ensure you do not allow your spine to curve forward and have a rounded back. That’s terrible for your spine and discs.
  • Keep your back firm. At no point during set up, lift, or reracking the weight should you lose the firmness of your back. Imagine trying to use a wet noodle to push something. It wouldn’t work. You need your back to remain nice and firm. I like to think of it as a solid part of the bar, connecting my legs to the weight I need to move.
  • Place the bar on your traps, where you create a shelf of muscle by retracting your scapulas. Some people mistakenly squat with the bar resting on their neck, which is very uncomfortable. I prefer a high bar squat, which helps you maintain a more erect posture. A low bar squat will require you to bend forward at the hips more, but is sometimes more comfortable for taller people. I’m 6’3″ and prefer the high bar squat, which is the right bar position for most people.
  • The tilt of your torso is another area where traditional advice is that your back should be at a 90 degree angle with the floor. In reality, to squat with depth, or if you are comfortable in the low bar position, you will likely need to hinge at the hip and tilt your torso very slightly forward. This tilt shouldn’t be exaggerated. However, it’s not wrong to allow that slight tilt. The main thing to note is that your back should still be completely straight, just at a slight angle. Tilting your torso is not the same as curving your spine.

Performing the squat to gain weight

Once you are set up to squat, it’s time to perform the exercise. Depending on your goal, like powerlifting or strength training, you will approach this differently. Our goal is to gain mass and trigger hypertrophy.

A nice mental tip I like to use is to think of the squat as the back of your hip bone. The area right above your glutes and below your lower back arch. When I squat I visualize dropping that slowly toward the ground and getting back up again.

It’s important that the weight is controlled during the whole exercise including descent.

Range of motion is a hotly debated topic. A common mistake is people perform quarter squats by not squatting anywhere near parallel. The lower you squat, the more intense it feels and harder you have to work. That’s a good thing. When I think of parallel, I draw an imaginary line across the top of my thighs from my hip to knee. When this line is parallel with the ground, you’ve squatted deep enough. Where many fitness enthusiasts disagree is on squatting past parallel. Some prefer ATG squats, which stands for “butt” to grass. Other say any depth beyond parallel is bad for your knees. Squatting far beyond parallel can lose the tension on your thighs.

As you squat, another common piece of advice you will hear is that your knees should never stick out past your toes. This might not be possible, again, as a result of your body’s shape, but you don’t want to have your knees go far out in front of your toes. What I pay more attention to is that I guide my knees over my toes. It’s important to track your knees along the same path as your natural toe point.

Keep your feet balanced so that you are not lifting with just your heel or leaning forward and putting all of the weight on your toes. You need to have your feet fully engaged and in full contact with the floor.

For reps, sets, and tempo, follow my post on training for massive gains. I still recommend using a weight you can handle for 10 sets of 10 reps, with 60 seconds of rest between sets. I prefer to spend one second dropping down and one second getting out of the hole.

What if you are scared to squat, or just can’t yet?

There are a variety of reasons why people do not squat. A lot of times, it’s simply because squatting is hard work. Other times, people may lack the mobility or strength to squat properly, or have a big ego that won’t allow them to squat appropriate weight.

If you do not squat because you don’t have the form right, try the goblet squat with a dumbbell in front of you. This is a great way to learn to keep your back straight torso up, while still challenging yourself with a light weight. Goblet squats will help you get comfortable with the motion and build flexibility.

Other exercises to help you gain quad and glute strength to squat are the split squat and lunges.

However, unless you have a health concern prohibiting you from squatting, don’t let these solutions become permanent. Do not get comfortable with substitutes for squats. Get up and get to work instead. Leave the ego at the door and perform the squat, even if you have to do so with an empty bar or bodyweight only.

Other resources

Although there are a ton of squat videos, there are two in particular I like to share, because they really helped me improve my form and understand the squat better.

Lane Norton gives a really helpful breakdown of the squat for bodybuilding.com here. This is really detailed and provides a ton of useful information.

Another great video is from Mark Rippetoe, who has a ton of other videos coaching classes on the squat and correcting form errors on the spot.

Thoughts or questions? Let me know in the comments!